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tv   The Last Word  MSNBC  December 28, 2012 10:00pm-11:00pm PST

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you can do and if you have access to a camera, you might want to practice until you get really good at it an you can put it on you tube and let the world know what you can do because you never know what exciting opportunities that might bring. for example, rachel maddow herself recently showed the staff of the "rachel maddow show" that she has a unique ability that has no evident discernible value in the marketplace. >> what was your other trick that you do? >> this one. >> can you do armpit farts? >> all i can see. >> it is snapping. >> doesn't matter. >> i have always, i have always been impressed by rachel maddow when i watch the show and having tried to host the show myself i'm beyond impressed what she does here night. it
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>> welcome to "the last word," our holiday party where we'll choose our person of the year, and a whole lot more. >> whoa, whoa, whoa, let's step back for a little bit. >> can we drop a little bit of the pios baloney. >> i think it is about envy. >> he is the worst republican in the country. >> i think it is about class war fare. >> you chose to start the debate with it, don't blame somebody else. >> i'm the turtle. >> well, if you don't run chris christie, romney will be the nominee. >> if men are from mars and women are from venus?
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is mitt romney from jupiter? >> planned parenthood, going to get rid of that. >> i love you women. >> back in my days, they used bare aspirin. >> if it is legitimate rape, the body shuts down. >> history will be made at the supreme court. >> the individual mandate is constitutional. >> this is the decision, a fascinating read. >> i know the debate. >> the republicans thought they were going to win. >> i think roberts found the answer. >> when we look back, we'll be better off. >> governor romney is caught on tape. >> the shocking tape from romney. >> it is not elegantly stated, let me put it that way, speaking off the cuff. >> in his words, nearly half the country will never take personal responsibility for their lives. >> it is not elegantly stated. >> if i were a rich man ♪
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♪ dumb, dumb. >> people want to know who is going to win, who is going to score the punches. >> the presidential candidates, battening down the hatches. >> i'm sorry, jim, i'm going to stop the subsidy to pbs. >> i like pbs, i love big bird. >> they brought us binders full of women. >> big bird. >> horses and bayonets. >> oh yeah ♪ ♪ >> i just called president obama to congratulate him. >> i congratulated him and paul ryan on a hard-fought campaign. >> i pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation. >> we are an american family, and we rise or fall together. the task of perfecting our union moving forward. >> tonight, we are celebrating the year in the news, the winners, the losers, the person
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of the year. and we will hand out the donald trump award. all right, let's start with the most valuable player of 2012, alex wagner. >> in my book, it is david, you saw the beginnings, with dean, and obama. >> krystal? the most valuable player? >> probably to waiter who placed the camera at the mitt romney fundraiser and captured the 47% comments, which i think showed a lot of people their concerns about mitt romney and the fact he really was not there for all of america. that he didn't understand the problems that average americans were facing. >> let's listen to that little moment of video history. the 47%.
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>> there are 47% of the people who will vote for the president, there are 47% of people who are with him. who believe that they are victims. who believe that the government has the responsibility to care for them. who believe they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. and so my job is not to worry about these people. i'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility. >> a very valuable comment. >> i am going to go with bill clinton. >> one speech? >> it was 20 years in the making, the story of the speech, for the first 15 years, republicans treated bill clinton that he was the worst thing that ever happened to american politics. the villain in chief, and after he left the white house, there was the moment in 2008, when republicans decided wait a minute, no, bill clinton is this by-gone symbol of an era, in
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moderation, they sang his praises for four years, set him up as the good democrat, against obama's bad democrat, and what happens, the good democrat vouches for the bad democrat and disarmed what a lot of republicans were saying about barack obama. >> you have made a reasonable argument. >> i think the enviable one was rick perry, who made the step of going full anti-out immigrant zealotry. >> it totally destroyed rick, he dispatched rick perry on the attack of the hundred thousand subsidy, which allowed the undocumented students to go to the university and pay in-state tuition. romney destroyed him. but in that rhetoric, he sealed his fate in the general election
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with the latinos, who he got blown out and provided a huge margin in the swing states. >> that is a good point, my point is, of course, the anonymous video operator, who captured the 47%, which is why we happen to have the tape. why it happened to be ready. now, the best move of 2012. what was the best move of 2012? >> this is really hard, because some part of me as a political junky thinks the best move is the crazy thing. and for that, i would give it to mitt romney actually moving across the stage and grabbing rick perry, this kind of physical debate style he also had that revealed him to be crazy and not driven by the same things that most humans are driven by. but sort of the competitive work force bought. but i think at end of the day we keep going back to the 47% -- >> it is everything. >> the release of that. and the timing of that changed
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the contours of the race, forever. >> and we don't really know who is responsible for that timing. krystal, the best move. >> the best move, goes to the point about immigration, the president, when he gave a press conference saying he would halt deportations on young undocumented immigrants. it really trapped mitt romney over there on the right, in self-deportation rick perry land. he was not able to strike a more reasonable position on immigration, because the president basically cut him off at the pass. so i think that was a very smart strategic move. >> all right, steve. >> i'll look at the senate level, the smartest move, mccaskill's move, saying you know what i think i want to run against todd akin, and she
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quietly helped him get the nomination. the rest is history. not only did it help her race, affect her race she had no business winning, there was obviously a ripple effect that helped democrats nationally. >> chris, the best move of the year? >> i think the best move, joe biden, who answered a question honestly without premeditation and frankly in his "meet the press" interview with david gregory when he was asked about marriage equality. and i think all the reporting afterward, was this a trial balloon, were they trying? no, no, no, joe biden was asked a question and answered with a moral legitimate move, a truthfulness that had these remarkable effects that it pushed the president to come clean about his personal evolution, i think that personally made a difference in the campaign. >> my visual on the campaign, we actually had a visual assist on this. "the washington post" said that obama and his allies spent far less than mitt romney, but got
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far more in key markets, targeting key democratic groups such as the young working voters in spring states. i think what they did, knowing why they were going, something we never saw before. the worst move of the 2012 campaign? >> i got two things on this. one is, i think my answer is choosing paul ryan to be the vice presidential nominee. just because a, it never gave him the list that anything thought it would be. he effectively neutered mitt romney, whether it was the stuff with todd akin, or the ryan budget, nowhere to run away from it. >> alex and i were on the same wavelength, picking paul ryan, not only for those reasons, but mitt romney went on to lose wisconsin badly. there were questions after paul
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ryan's debate performance against joe biden of whether he was really ready to step on the stage and be the number two. and i think a lot of people who thought about going with mitt romney, not only were they uncomfortable with how far to the right he was, how extreme his positions on social security and medicare, but they also just felt like he was not quite ready for prime time. so i think it was a very bad strategic move for them. >> steve, the worst move? >> let me come at it from a strategic move. >> we always do that. >> it is the booze talking, i don't know. from the standpoint of voters who -- you know, i think to make an informed choice, what do you have? you have the debates, we had jim lehrer as the moderator, for the 196th time. and what did he debate? you could have climate change or gay marriage or birth control. all that was ignored. we talked about simpson-bowles, deficit reduction, and affordable care act. >> with no explanation of what
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they were for the average person. >> it was sort of the inside the beltway debate, and you get one positive debate for the entire fall campaign. you open things up to new voices to broader perspectives. i don't mean to pick on jim lehrer too much, but really, enough of it. >> chris, the worst move? >> the worst move, the decision by both the obama campaign and the not so surprising decision on never raising climate change for the first time. since 1988, if you go back to the tape when lloyd benson, they both said yeah, that will be a problem, we should do something about it. here we are, 24 years later and it doesn't even get a mention in any of the debates. >> i have another video assist, the worst move, the worst decision of the campaign was to do what you're about to see. at the republican convention. >> oh. >> i just wondered -- all of
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these promises, and then i wondered about -- you know, when -- the -- what do you want me to tell romney? i can't tell him to do that. can't do that to himself. you're absolutely crazy. >> up next, the rising star of 2013. and the best and worst political theater of the presidential campaign. and of course, biggest winner, biggest loser, person of the year. and the trump award. [ male announcer ] feeling like a shadow of your former self? c'mon, michael! get in the game! [ male announcer ] don't have the hops for hoops with your buddies? lost your appetite for romance? and your mood is on its way down. you might not just be getting older. you might have a treatable condition
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the rising political star of 2013, chris hayes, who will that be? >> massachusetts senator elizabeth warren, i think it is not an easy thing to do what she
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did. you know, she was a star on this network and among progressives, but to go on particularly in massachusetts, i think she will be absolutely a force in massachusetts. >> it pains me to say it, but this is going to be the year when corey booker, he is either going to run for governor -- >> krystal, the rising star. >> the youngest woman in the house, also the first hindu-american woman in congress, combat veteran, really an amazing woman. >> alex, the rising star? >> i asked you to go with chris first because i thought it would provide me cover. i was going to say elizabeth warren, and it is true, i'll tell you why -- >> do you want to give up going first next time -- okay you will go first next time.
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i will agree with alex wagner, not chris hayes. alex wagner, we'll be back with more of "the last word" holiday party. stay with us. copd makes it hard to breathe, but with advair, i'm breathing better. so now i can be in the scene. advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator working together to help improve your lung function all day. advair won't replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms
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and should not be used more than twice a day. people with copd taking advair may have a higher chance of pneumonia. advair may increase your risk of osteoporosis and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking advair. if you're still having difficulty breathing, ask your doctor if including advair could help improve your lung function. get your first full prescription free and save on refills at advaircopd.com. the literati send out their minions to do their bidding. washington cannot tolerate threat from outsiders who may disrupt their comfortable world. the firefight started, a lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslought.
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but out of the billowing smoke and dust, tweets and trivia, emerged newt gingrich. >> that, of course, was the best actual political theater of 2012, tony award winner john lithgow's reading of the press release, i think it was. but let's do the best political theater of 2012, and we'll now start with alex wagner again, because she is demanding. >> it is a contractual obligation. it was the best, because i couldn't believe it was happening in mid-august. mitt romney took to the white board to explain what he was doing with medicare. which, in and of itself was a hoax, but the notion that this man would have this horribly stage-managed moment in an effort to show he was all about business.
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he cemented every narrative out there. >> i don't know if the mice can pick it up, but the drinks are being spilled there over at that table. krystal ball, the best political theater. >> well, i also have a newt gingrich moment when he turned questions about him asking his former wife for an open marriage, parlayed into a debate moment, a huge applause moment. and then parlayed that into an actual victory in the south carolina primary. that was an incredible moment. >> do we happen to have that video? >> she says you asked her to enter into an open marriage, would you like to take some time to respond to that? >> no, but i will. i think the destructive,
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vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public office. and i am appalled that you would begin a presidential debate with a topic like that. >> that was obviously my choice, too, for best political theater. that is why we had that ready. steve, best political theater. >> and i remember the favorite thing about that episode, it turned out in the reporting afterwards when they went to commercial break, newt gingrich went up to john king, no hard feelings. >> my favorite moment in the final presidential debate, when mitt romney thought he landed the killer blow against barack obama on libya, failure to call the attack, it was at that time barack obama knew what he was running, he said governor, proceed.
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>> we have that queued up. >> i think the democratic convention was done, compared to the republican convention where i thought it was a disaster, i thought it back fired. i specifically thought that bill clinton's speech, was political theater at its best, he was not afraid. he didn't do the cheap and easy thing which was to do something surfacey, he actually went into the weeds of the detail of the policy and explained them and it actually made for great theater. >> worst political theater. >> i can't believe we haven't mentioned it. herman cain, he was in theater, a command of his audience, but at the end of the day, it was theater. >> there is that. >> we are the water drinkers. >> water team. >> so worst political theater, i
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would say after the 47% comments came out and mitt romney decided to do this hurried press conference where he looked frazzled, the hair was a little askew, where he really had nothing to say and essentially dug the hole for himself deeper, that was the worst, other than clint eastwood. >> the mitt romney campaign on the ropes, rick santorum, in the polls, mitt romney says we're going to turn it out with an economic speech. they went out to the detroit lions, 65,000 seats, and it was .0002 full. >> the worst political theater was the members of the president's campaign in the spin room after the first debate in denver. very, very, very gamely attempting -- attempting to put a happy face. >> for me, it was a particular moment in the herman cain campaign. >> was --
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>> was kind of when -- it was when he had stuff twirling around in his head and we're going to look at that right now. >> so you agreed with president obama on libya, or not? >> okay, libya. president obama supported the uprising, correct? i do not agree with the way he handled it for the following reason. no, that is a different one. i got to go back to see -- >> oh. >> got all of this stuff twirling around in my head. >> oh, we miss him so badly.
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we're going to go back with more of the biggest surprise, person of the year award, donald trump award, coming up. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics... a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms.
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and the sorry to see you go category, chris?
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>> legendary union baseball president marvin miller, died this year. i got the pleasure of interviewing him. totally and completely revolutionized, essentially where owners could basically pay players nothing, into the modern free agent system in which players can actually recoup a fair market value. >> steve, sorry to see you go. >> he was my kind of politician and my kind of congressman. he cared about that city, it is a tough city, people ignore, he lost his career in a trumped up fake scandal that rick santorum and john boehner created in the '90s, a house banking scandal. he lost his career, put on trial, exonerated, but he spent the last 20 years unappreciated. and i think he deserves recognition, joe early.
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>> phyllis diller. >> they were key makers. >> and rose to fame in the same era, i am very sorry to see go whitney houston. we're going to be back with more of our last word holiday show. ♪ [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso.
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i just finished a bowl of your new light chicken pot pie soup and it's so rich and creamy... is it really 100 calories? let me put you on webcan... ...lean roasted chicken... and a creamy broth mmm i can still see you. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. ♪ welcome back to "the last word," holiday party. our new category is the biggest surprise of 2012. karen finney, what was the biggest surprise of 2012. >> that we were able to call the election around 11:00.
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>> i actually thought it would happen, by the time we got to california, closing time we would know. >> i really thought it would be a much bigger mess, and i didn't think the president would be able to win without us having a debacle in florida, and thankfully we didn't. >> joy reed, what was the big surprise? >> the big surprise was that mitt romney chose paul ryan as his running mate. he is the right guy? but as a democrat, secretly, i was like oh please, pick paul ryan, i didn't think he would do it. >> there were so many reasons not to pick him. >> but he was like ideological, and they crystallized all the things they didn't like about mitt romney, the 47%, voucherizing medicare, all that was crystallizing in one person,
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he picked him for the running mate, i was surprised. >> the big surprise, something way behind scenes, the debate commission makes the rules, they are usually secret. they leaked these, you can read the rules. turns out the debate rules restrict the moderator from doing any fact-checking or any comments to the response or answers the candidates give. and we never knew it before. because it is secret between the candidates and commission. it is crooked, and we learned that. next cycle, i think there will be pressure to change the rules. >> i hate the rules, and did re-writes, my big surprise of 2012 was president obama's performance in the first debate. i kind of went -- what? >> that was everybody's big surprise. >> and it didn't start to settle
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on me until we were about 50 minutes in. you're kind of waiting for the engine to start. and it didn't -- >> it is going -- >> it was amazing. >> i think they were so confident in their math in the obama campaign that at the didn't go into that debate taking it all that seriously. and i think he thought why am i here with this guy? >> it is that incumbent thing, the president thinking, oh, i'm so out of shape. >> he didn't take eye contact seriously, either, he was sort of -- yeah. >> now, here -- this comes to the annual donald trump award. he has won this award for the last 20 years on the show. and so it has been named after him. it is the most embarrassing, the person who has embarrassed himself or herself the most in the year 2012. so for you, karen, this year, the donald trump award goes to? >> oh, i have to say herman cain, in that interview, and he couldn't remember --
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>> and that video we just saw. >> maybe a close second with governor perry, with trying to remember the three agencies, ouch, ouch, ouch, it just hurt, it hurt. >> and the difference was, perry actually was running for president, and cain was running for fame. joy? the donald trump award. >> well, i'm going to go with john sununu, he was the worst surrogate. he is everything wrong with the republican's brand, surly, racially insensitive, ugly, just awful. and he kept talking. >> the donald trump award goes to? >> my trump award goes to karl rove, on election night, on politics, election night he had no idea what was going on. and on policy, this was the year when we really saw the public turn against his enduring legacy of trying to write state legislation into the
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constitution against people who happen to be gay. and the republican party is turning against that. and that will be his legacy for a long time, sadly in the legislative issue. >> and for years, i've said the donald trump award has gone to donald trump. and once again i will give it to donald trump because i find it impossible to outdo donald trump on embarrassing yourself. there are a couple of people who tried, they tried really hard to outdo donald trump. let's take a look, for example, at todd akin. >> first of all, from what i understand from doctors, that is really rare, if it is a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. >> and just when you thought he had that whole jurisdiction wrapped up, there came richard murdoch, who we should take a look at. >> i think that when rape
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occurs, life occurs in that horrible situation, they are children of god. >> and every time i hear that, it sounds like he is not feeling well on top of it. >> there were a number of male, mostly male republican legislators in state legislatures across the country who made similar comments, who can remain nameless, but let's give them a little hat tip about being that stupid about women. >> how about those who wrote the platform, they completely agreed with them, none of them could escape it. >> all right, coming up, the person who we are not sorry to see go. also, we'll pick the person of the year, the biggest winner and loser, stay with us. ...so as ys customer satisfaction is at 97%. mmmm tasty. and cut! very good.
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see you go category, who are you not sorry to see go? >> allen west. >> you took my answer right off -- okay. >> now people know this is real. >> all right, allen west, and joy, who was your runner-up? >> i guess my runner-up has to be dick morris, i think we're rid of him, he is sort of like a bad penny. >> maybe he is hibernating. >> i think i'm going to have to go with jim demint. >> and he is going to disappear, this nonsense, this is a better job than -- going to go run a stupid -- in d.c., yeah, it is actually kind of great to get rid of him. the people who are not sorry to see him go are the republicans in senate who he was driving crazy. democrats in the senate liked having a nut like that to paint
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the whole party. >> can i give a runner-up? the tea party, the funny hats, the teabags hanging from their hats, and the obnoxious rallies. >> they have functionally disappeared. they had really nothing to say in the so-called fiscal cliff crisis. all right, the biggest winners and losers, stay with us . [ male announcer ] it's that time of year again. time for citi price rewind. because your daughter really wants that pink castle thing. and you really don't want to pay more than you have to. only citi price rewind automatically searches for the lowest price. and if it finds one, you get refunded the difference. just use your citi card and register your purchase online. have a super sparkly day! ok. [ male announcer ] now all you need is a magic carriage. citi price rewind. start saving at citi.com/pricerewind.
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but with advair, i'm breathing better. so now i can be in the scene. advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator working together to help improve your lung function all day. advair won't replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than twice a day. people with copd taking advair may have a higher chance of pneumonia. advair may increase your risk of osteoporosis and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking advair. if you're still having difficulty breathing, ask your doctor if including advair could help improve your lung function. get your first full prescription free and save on refills at advaircopd.com.
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welcome back to "the last word," holiday party. it is now time for the person of the year award. who is the person of the year? >> i was thinking it is a night for celebration, but it is also a night to honor people. and for me, when you look at 2012, it would be congresswoman gabrielle giffords, she resigned this year after a heroic battle dealing with the gunshot wounds that she experienced. we obviously keep her in our thoughts and our prayers. but she was also a leader, and believed in public policy. and we're going to have to look as we go forward into the next year over how we deal with this enduring problem of gun violence in our country. >> joy reed, your person of the year? >> i picked for the person of the year, the american voter. >> it does sound corny. >> it is corny, you know, the
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reason i said it -- >> you said a group, you didn't say the country. >> it is a group. >> it is very "time magazine." >> i know, it is, never in my lifetime have i seen people have to endure so many hoops, obstruction. seven hours in line. i have never seen it so obvert, you know, people literally fought against the right to vote this term, this cycle, more than i have ever seen in my life. i felt like i was back in the '60s, or '50s, and in florida, when they passed legislation specifically getting black voters not able to vote. and preventing people from being able to vote early. i thought people's resilience, and resolve, i met people, older people who had disabilities saying i'm staying in line if it has to be all day. i am very proud of them. it is corny. >> no, it is not, you beat me on it. >> and the images were powerful.
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>> karen? >> i think it is malala yousufzai. she reminded me what was important in the ridiculous election season, of terms that are far more important, and particularly at a time when republicans were trying to tell women that this war on women, it is all in our heads. i think it is a good reminder that what women have fought for, continue for fight for. >> she was shot in the head by the pakistani taliban, because she wants education for girls. we have video of malala yousufzai. let's talk about that. >> i have a new dream, so i thought that i must be a politician to serve this country. >> why did you change this dream. >> because there are so many crises in our country, i want to remove them. >> and you notice there is a little bug here, which is why we have that video ready to go. krystal ball, your person of the
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year, you can just say i agree. >> i have to go with president obama. mine is corny, too. he really survived a lot of adversity, so -- >> i don't think you have to make the case for the president being the person of the year. >> alex wagner, the person of the year. >> i would echo krystal, he purported himself with kindness, and integrity. >> steve, you're the tie-breaker, there are two for malala yousufzai. >> i'm not breaking a tie, going out on my own, family feud style. john roberts, supreme court justice, the height of the election season, immense pressure, he said you know what? the affordable care act, it stands. >> all right, coming up, the biggest winner and loser, a different concept than person of
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the year. you get that? think about this. we'll be right back with more of "the last word" holiday party. biggest winner. bob, these projections... they're... optimistic. productivity up, costs down, time to market reduced... those are good things. upstairs, they will see fantasy. not fantasy... logistics. ups came in, analyzed our supply chain, inventory systems... ups? ups. not fantasy? who would have thought? i did. we did, bob. we did. got it.
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c'mon, michael! get in the game! [ male announcer ] don't have the hops for hoops with your buddies? lost your appetite for romance? and your mood is on its way down. you might not just be getting older. you might have a treatable condition called low testosterone or low t. millions of men, forty-five or older, may have low t. so talk to your doctor about low t. hey, michael! [ male announcer ] and step out of the shadows. hi! how are you? [ male announcer ] learn more at isitlowt.com. [ laughs ] hey!
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welcome back to "the last word" holiday party. we are now going to pick our biggest winner and biggest loser of 2012. and i'm going to break the routine, i'm going to go first.
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one reason why i'm going to go first on biggest loser is because my choice is wicked obvious. there is no sense waiting around for the big suspense of my decision. i am choosing mitt romney, and i'm doing that because the man lived his entire life for this year to be the republican nominee. his father told him, go out and get rich, mitt. and then run for office. you know, when you can afford to, so he followed his father's plan. he ignored a lot of what his father actually thought about governing and politics and things, you know, things like letting people see your tax returns, 12 years, which his father did, all that stuff. and so mitt romney having lived his life, built his life, to be able to do this, run his campaign is now at home tonight with his tax returns. he is the biggest loser in america.
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karen finney, biggest loser. >> biggest loser, anybody who was taking their cues from the mitt romney campaign's polls in that last couple of weeks and was out there talking about 300 electoral votes, that was really fun. >> joy? >> it was close, paul ryan, being associated with the biggest loser is almost as bad as being the loser. >> and history, you could go nowhere. >> this time, it was a tie between him and rupert murdoch. his entire news was exposed, fox news was literally exposed on election night. their entire narrative on election night was false, you had the phone-hacking scandal, so he is just a mess right now, a tie, slight edge over ryan. >> the biggest loser, a long-time coming.
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when i first started to work for senator cantwell, and people discussed things, saying you can't do that because of "the pledge." i didn't know what it was. and the pledge is slowly, grover norquist, anti-tax pledge, which is no way to run a business or the government. revenues are important if you understand a balance sheet. and that thing has haunted us for a long time and is slowly losing. >> krystal ball, the biggest loser. >> mine in part, karl rove, people thought if they didn't like him, he was very smart. he exposed himself to not be very smart on election night over at that other network. >> we only have two people left who may please me by choosing donald trump. alex wagner, the biggest loser of 2012? >> donald trump --
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>> correct, correct, you get the ipad. >> i hate to disappoint you, it is shelden addelson -- the house lost. >> steve. >> i want an ipad, but the big loser, the name for generations, the gold standard in public opinion polling. gallup, all of october, on election day said romney has an advantage, going to win this, and people are going to look more skeptically at the gallup polls. >> let's see if silver comes up in the category, biggest winner, again, i'm going to go first, because once again, i couldn't be more obvious. i just think the guy who wins the presidential election is really, you know, by every measure the biggest winner. and he did it with this crushing
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unemployment rate on his administration, which he did everything he could possibly do to fix. but he didn't have it politically fixed by the time he went into re-election, he got reelected with an unemployment number there everybody says is impossible. and so that credit goes to president obama, biggest winner of 2012, for me. >> i am going to go with the home team, and say msnbc, because we kicked the other network's butt. >> she gets the ipad. >> well you previewed mine, i was going to say silver, i think math was a huge number. he looked at the numbers, the polls properly. he understood better the way to do it. the demographics just differently this year. and the people who understood that if 28% was going to be the minority, and if president obama could pull that, he was going to win. nate silver is a big winner, his detractors look pretty silly right now.
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>> i want to say, he put you on blast for calling you out and saying corny. government intervention was the biggest winner, barack obama came into office after elite failure, fundamental distrust of what our government can do. if you boil it down, he outlined a series of markets, the health care market, the insurance market, the car market, with regulation and stimulus. and each one of those things has worked. he won over the public, because they were skeptical. you said he won, i am saying he renewed a faith in doing what we need to get out of this recession. >> krystal ball, the biggest winner? >> i was going to go with barack obama, but claire mccaskill, he was written off, nobody thought she could win the seat in
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missouri. and she won the crazy candidate jackpot. and was very smart and strategic on how she parlayed that into a victory. >> alex wagner? >> hillary clinton, for 2016, the term teflon don, she is a teflon woman. >> i want to piggyback, the biggest winner, the biggest loser of george romney, who exited with his reputation in tatters, a couple of generation's ago, and his son who failed to live up by so many ways, brought back the reputation, the history's estimation of george romney comes up in a better place than it was before this election. >> that is a good one, i like that.